Red & Blue

Red & Blue
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

I've been wanting to do one of these fun mosaics for awhile. Turns out there's some real alchemy to it because you have to put the pictures in your favorites in the order you want them to appear, or you have to fool with them when the mosaic is finished. I think we all know I'm not that patient. Regardless, this rocks, because now I get to play with colors.

I love red & blue (that's what's in the kitchen, in fact), so I started there & then added the kitchen stuff. Seems summery to me.

Happy Thursday!

Memorial Day.

Show and Tell Sunday - Vintage China

Since I have already gotten in trouble with my own MOTHER for being late with this, I figured I'd better get busy. Also for that reason, I uploaded small pictures, but you can see them in extra-ginormous if you click on them. :)

Without further ado:
One cup & saucer from the set below. I love the little school house, and the fact that the cup has no handle.
This particular collection started with the platter in the middle. I found it at a JUNKY store, and paid $2 or $3 for it. The rest came from Ebay, but I've decided not to go that route any more; it's just not very satisfying. I might do it to finish a set, but that'd be the only reason.

This set came from the Plum Tree, and looks really old. {If Dawn's reading, maybe she remembers?} I have no idea who made it or when it was made; it's entirely unmarked! It has neat little bowls with lips on two sides that apparently serve as cups, since they have matching saucers. This is the stuff that gets carted around to people's houses, since it wasn't very expensive, and people seem to like it.

Here we have the best story. These are Tulane Wedgwood plates! Yes, that's right, YOUR college might have fine china, too! We found them in a way-grungy china shop in Savannah right after our wedding, and they were cheap-for-Wedgwood, but definitely not a steal. I almost only bought a couple (because of the price), but Lindsey encouraged me to go for it. Well, it turns out that was the RIGHT decision, because I can't find these anywhere, for love or money. Seriously - even if I were willing to pay a kabillion dollars, it wouldn't matter - they just don't seem to exist! None even popped up post-Katrina, when folks were bilking us NOLA-lovers left, right, and sideways. It's a mystery, I tell you!
This random collection is all thrifted - the poppy bowl is from Savannah, the left-hand side is all from Value Village (my favorite - can you IMAGINE giving away that Pyrex plate with red & black flowers?????? I found TWO of them!!!!), including the Occupied Japan yellow saucer that set me back a big fat nickel! The little cherub plate came from somewhere else. I'm not normally a cherub girl, but these guys were too cute - see their closeup below.
Hope you enjoyed my showing and telling - thanks to Analise for her sweet blog, and for coordinating all of this china fun!

Happy Memorial Day!

Ooooohhhhh, goody.

So some of the gals around crafty vintage blogland have been doing Show-and-Tell Sundays. I have not had the time/inclination/mental fortitude to participate yet, but I will be participating this Sunday, because......

we're sharing vintage china/crystal/silver. Now, I don't have anything silver, and what little crystal I have is hardly vintage, but let me tell you that I can FIND some cheap vintage china. Okay, so sometimes it's less cheap, but still! I love it, and see no reason why it's excessive to own multiple china patterns. I could have much worse addictions. :)

Anyway, if you're just kicking to participate, you should check it out here. Stay tuned....

Look! People came to Atlanta!

In case you missed Monkey's wonderful post about the fun we had at the Kirkwood Fling on Saturday, here are some more pictures to inspire you.

First of all, this is what it really looked like. Really. It was quite pretty and there was a nice breeze to keep it from getting too hot. This is unusual in May in Georgia, but I think we deserve it after all of the tornadoes (more came tonight, in fact).

This is what I ate for lunch - yummy pulled pork & Red Brick's Summer Brew. Perfecto!

Kinsley & Lee - hanging out.

Melissa & Julie - eating.

Natalie - sitting.

Aren't you all sad to have missed it? We also had gelato, and went to the scrapbook store & bookstore. Now I KNOW you're jealous. I hope everyone out there had a great weekend, too!

A delightful change of pace.

You may remember way back in the day when I made a dishtowel bag for Barb's Purse Project.

Well, I haven't exactly kept up with the challenges, um, at all. Mostly because of work, but also just because I haven't. So, I've decided to take Barb up on her current challenge: the tshirt bag. I've seen these on Etsy, and on trendsters here in Atlanta. We certainly have PLENTY of tshirts in this house. In fact, I got a free one just this week that I will never ever wear. It is a putrid shade of yellow. Might as well give it away or make something else out of it!

Anyway, you should all go check out the contest - Monkey will love the prize - and then start sewing. In fact, I think you could do this without sewing, if you were willing to tie a whole bunch of knots or something. Tshirts don't unravel...

Happy weekend!

weather = song

Did you know Conway Twitty also recorded this? I DON'T THINK SO, FRIENDS! Don't you wish they still played songs on the radio sung by people who can, um, sing?

Ode to way-too-dark pictures.

One day, I will once again become smart, and take pictures in the afternoon to avoid these issues. I wanted y'all to see the cool journal that Geri made for me as part of our swap. It has a neat vintage French graphic on the cover. Also, you should know that those stripes on the side? Yeah, that's not the pattern on the paper. SHE CUT THOSE OUT AND GLUED THEM ON. As someone whose "scissoring" never got up to snuff, I'm seriously impressed.
This is what I'm using it for - cutting out all those magazine pictures that I want to keep. It's already eliminated about a foot worth of old magazines! And I haven't really even gotten rolling!

Other updates? Work stinks. Visited the EAV farmer's market, where we bought really yummy bread, arugula, a whole bunch of green stuff for Lindsey, and ordered some strawberries for next week. House moderately clean, but laundry disastrous. Can't win them all, it turns out. Also turns out that the end of the school year is crazy even if you're not in the classroom.

Happy Thursday.

Paris in the Spring Swap

Paris in the Spring Swap - Before Opening
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

Okay kids. I've been VERY delinquent in showing you all the fun treats that Geri sent to me for the latest Sweet Goodness Swap. However, Blogger is not really down with letting me add pictures right now, so you'll need to head over to flickr & check out the wonderfulness. GO! Go now!!

old friends

Did you know that I have adored these two since I was very small? My parents had this record, and I had it on tape, and now we can all listen, thanks to the Internet (complete with transition into what we all know as Feelin' Groovy). Lindsey bought me tickets to their reunion tour here in Atlanta, and Paul wore a fairly ridiculous almost-midriff-baring shirt that did not take away from how awesome they still are, always have been, and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Something my father told me when I was very small (along with the fact that if I was mean to him we would go to the New Dad Store, and I'd have a new daddy, which would make me cry AND behave) was that S&G were wonderful because they sounded as good live as they did recorded, and vice versa. He also used this logic to try to explain that one never needed to see them live. ;)

Actually, Art Garfunkel ranks on my top 5 most transcendent live musical experiences of all time:
5) Art Garfunkel, Riverbend, Chattanooga, 2002
4) Better than Ezra, Tipitina's Uptown, New Orleans, Mardi Gras 1999
3) Cowboy Mouth, JazzFest, New Orleans, 2002
2) Torrence Welch, Georgia Tech Orchestra, Atlanta, 2006
1) Wild Women Blues, Paris, 2001

If you really care for me to annotate this list, I could, but I doubt anyone really wants me to.

Anyway, the old friends thought came because I talked to an old friend on the phone tonight, making plans for our NOLA adventure later this summer, a phone call inspired by the amazing things I have heard at the reading conference over the past few days, that reminded me of my much more socially active college self, all of which has steeled my resolve to go back to the classroom after one more year in this job.

With any luck, by this weekend I'll have processed everything enough to write a decent narrative about what I learned, which I will probably post here for anyone who might be interested. I know you'll be waiting with bated breath.

Coming up for air...

...but only for a second.

Lindsey had a friend in town this weekend, which was lovely. He's a sweetie. We also got to see our friend Alan, who was home briefly between flight school & water survival "school," before he goes to something else in Arkansas, at which point I think he'll get the privilege of flying very large heavy airplanes back and forth to vacation destinations like Iraq & Afghanistan. Not that we'll know where he is, or anything, but not being morons, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to narrow down the choices.

Friday I returned to Jackson to visit Monkey's schoolwide art show. I got to see some of my very favorite kiddos on the planet, which rocked. The art was amazing, too. Learn more about this here, and also see darling pictures of very cute kids.

VBS planning continues to go swimmingly, with a whole bunch of people saying things like, "just tell me what you want me to do." Here's hoping that they DO those things after I tell them what they are.

I'll be at the International Reading Association conference through Thursay, which promises to be interesting. I get to stand in the presence of some fabulous thinkers, writers, & teachers, not to mention some really cool children's book authors.

Along those lines, here are some great kiddie lit blogs for those of you with kids. I'm thinking of starting my own this summer. It's already got a title. :)
Miss Rumphius Effect is written by a teacher ed professor, and is forever being updated.
Planet Esme is written by the author of Educating Esme, which, if you teach but haven't read, is a phenomenal piece of work that you must read.

In other news, one of my rose bushes actually looks like it'll have lots of blooms by midweek! Now, I can quit being an embarassment to my rose-growing neighbors.

Happy Week, kids.